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Leafan Oligarchy
The oligarchy, known properly as the Mistlight Court, first appeared some hundred years after the Leafans had gotten themselves settled into a fairly tribal existence and made some progress in the fields of survivalism. It was necessity and holy divination that brought the various disparate tribes together- seers and shamans foresaw the future of the island and demanded that the tribes grow and become more than savages, if not for their own sake then for their children. It would not be long before the collected tribes of Sahuagin, Kua-toa, and their pet monstrosities- whom the Leafans had been fighting back on and off for decades- would begin coordinating their efforts towards some darker, unknown purpose. The strongest families from the strongest tribes would be called the Nobility, and with their strengths they would teach the tribes to work and live together until they were all a single tribe, a single nation, striving towards a common good. Clan of Kinshu From the Telkari hunter-gatherer tribe came the Kinshus, led by the now-legendary chief-cum-duke Malclaw Kinshu, remembered in stories as the Mist Haunter. Being composed primarily of Kampftier who follow the Aesirian pantheon, it was only natural that the Telkari would produce fighters with a strong warrior culture. To this day they are entrenched in that culture, though the focus has switched from barbaric hunters to professional soldiers, they maintain and espouse a very strict code of honor that they hold everyone to, especially themselves. No member of the clan, high or low, from the Duke and Duchess to the lowest peasants, are above the Kinshu's codes of chivalry, honor, and justice. At a glance this makes them seem like a very brutal people. Instructors take recruits and test and train them until they are near the brink of destruction. Those who successfully become part of the house's soldiery are often looked down upon and relentlessly teased by their fellows if they don't have a handful of scars to show. Even the peasant militia training is pretty rough and injuries are commonplace. It is important to note that they draw a fine line between necessary and unnecessary roughness, and unnecessary is unacceptable- it agitates the duchy to no end if people are being put through hell without good cause. Past this they are a culture that highly favors dancers, storytellers, and musicians- bards are always welcome in Kinshu lands, whether they lean towards the comedic or the dramatic. The recent introduction of radio to Leafos has created a huge market for radio dramas, and many are eager to bring televised broadcasting in as soon as possible. Duke Maringar, the current lord of the clan and a particularly large wolfish Kampftier, has been a particularly noisome proponent of bringing more of the outside world to Leafos. Aside from the obvious desires for access to modern military developments, Maringar believes it is critical that Leafos catch up with the rest of the system, at least in the most basic respects. It is his belief that one day, maybe in a week, maybe in a hundred years, that the Mists will fade- and when they do, if Leafos is not at least close to a similar level of development as their neighbors, then they will be ripe for the pickings by hostile powers. He doesn't care how those ends are achieved, either through scientific or magical means, only that they are achieved- hopefully sometime before old age forces him to step down and let one of his sons or daughters take his place. While many of his fellow nobles agree that progress is a must, more than a few wonder if his desires are not the result of paranoia and hate borne from the loss of Duchess Kellingor to a particularly savage Sahuagin attack shortly after their fifth son Aarinor was born. Though Kinshu soldiers are quick to decry anyone making such an accusation, it is slowly becoming more noticeable that they fear this may well be the case, and that Maringar may engage in clandestine activities in the name of vengeance at the expense of those around him. House of Goriath It is said that when the Goriaths were still just the ruling family of the Kesseri tribe, they consorted with a wide variety of magical beings and beasts to empower their bloodline, believing that it would grant them great magical powers. This had.. Mixed results, to say the least. Many Goriaths were invariably afflicted with terrible supernatural malladies and curses that have nearly destroyed the family numerous times, but one cannot say that such efforts have been in vain- in the last century the conflicting energies and taints within their blood seems to have settled somewhat, and this has resulted in the Goriaths producing more sorcerers than any other group on Leafos. They regularly produce people who are somewhere between eccentric and crackerjack insane of course, but the family has had enough time to get handling such individuals and keeping them out of trouble down to a science. Most of the time, at least. The transition from tribal savage to more civilized trappings was a welcome one for the Goriaths; the simple development of permanent agriculture more than tripled their previous power, giving them the ability to grow, harvest, and store not only food but reagents. Being trapped in mists, Leafos is not exactly rich in the components for spells and potions, and preserving them is a nightmare; it's much easier with things like 'bottles' and 'shelves' and 'closets' though. And the more nature-leaning magicians in their ranks have found that their sorcerous powers can be extremely useful in the growing of orchards and other crops, making it much easier to keep everyone fed. Such utilitarian power is what made the Goriaths the natural choice for the Kesseri's to nominate for nobility. The head of the house of Goriath is the Magistrix Elliana, a lagomorphic Citybound who is a member of the prestigeous Fogrime Seers, and a senior instructor at The Gandrholl; one of the most renowned schools of wizardry in Charybdis, at least so far as elemental magics are concerned. Elliana does not often find time for Courtly matters- not because she doesn't like them, but because of the Gandrholl tends to require her attentions. Ever since contact was made with the Inixians and contact with the rest of Charybdis established, the Gandrholl has become one of the most important locations in Leafos, students from across the worlds come to learn. The need for more attentiveness to books than politics has made Elliana very much the 'nerdy librarian' sort: shy of crowds, loves books, enjoys research of odd creatures and insects more than interactions with people. Whenever possible she delegates Courtly needs to more politically minded family members, or meets in private with her cousin Maringar. Leviduan Family Close to the center of the island, the Ajirnab tribe was mostly isolated from the other tribes. Being followers of the Pharaonic deities, they feared for the longest time that the others- most of whom worship the apparently more violent Aesirian pantheon- might crush them, and having so few resources, stayed to themselves. There was little of anything back then, even clothes were a commodity afforded only to the priesthood or the most wealthy individuals. To survive, the Ajirnabians swiftly learned to become masters of resource allocation and accounting, wasting absolutely nothing. Everything was carefully recorded and kept track of to a degree that even Novimfal historians consider obsessive. When approached by the other tribes peacefully, they tentatively entered the agreement for unification, almost drawing out several times when they feared that their meager ways of life might be threatened. The final decision to join was ultimately made by the wealthiest family, the Leviduans, who used their economic dominance to force their fellows into joining. Leviduans became the nobles, and have since become one of the most powerful houses. Even though resources are extraordinarily plentiful (by their old tribal standards), the Leviduans are still obsessive experts on accounting. Though not necessarily miserly, they and their staff account for every single meko and good that passes through Leafos' economy. They have amassed considerable fortunes, all of which are tied into the national economy- there isn't a single business in Leafos that isn't partially or wholly owned or subsidized by Leviduan investors and shareholders. Most of them don't like it, but the Leviduans don't care, because it is their belief that absolute control over resources is more important to ensuring mutual survival. If a few freedoms must be quashed and some profits lost, then so be it. Of course, concessions must be made for the sake of the other families, and for their citizenry.. But that's an acceptable loss. Inefficiencies to be tolerated for the sake of efficiency. The head of the Leviduan is the Rasidi, Tielsani. The Rasidi is an aging equinal Yentho who is approaching the end of his life; something that annoys him to no end, as is a very busy man and death would be a significant interruption to his ledger-work and filing. He has always been driven to succeed, not just for the sake of adhering to some ancient familial tradition but because he has always believed in that tradition, that his clan's efforts make the survival of all Leafos possible. But age has simultaneously softened and hardened T ielsani; on the one hand he has become more willing to let what he considers inefficiencies and indulgences slide, but when he balks at something he refuses to budge on it unless his wife threatens him with physical violence. He has become a respected and, to some extent, adored figure in Leafos- a beloved cranky old man who shakes his cane at youngsters for playing on his lawn, only to invite them in for cookies and a story after they stop ruining his garden. Most of the other Court attendees have come to look upon him as a grandfatherly sort of figure. Many of his children and grandchildren have asked Tielsani to step down from his post, citing that he has earned the right to spend the rest of his remaining years in content and luxurious retirement; to which Tielsani responds that none of them are ready for his burden, and fears he may go crazy if he doesn't have something to keep him busy and away from his wife and her sizeable collection of blunt instruments. Sesephiel Clan The tribe of Jolugan claims that their ancestors were inspired by the example set by the Centauri, telling stories about old, dying warriors and shaman who had been stranded on Leafos and taken in by the Jolugani for their remaining days. They learned very little of Centauri martial or survivalistic traditions, but they learned a fair amount about the basics of Nature magic, and the secrets that hide in the thickest corners of the woods and hills. The Jolugan took up a nomadic lifestyle as their supposed Centauri teachers had done, following the island's only river, the Graurhine, and keeping it safe from the various things that occasionally like to try and infiltrate through its muddy banks. After the Black Rains finally ended, it was the Jolugan who sent messengers out to contact the other tribes and make suggestions of alliance, under the orders of druidic seers. And under the orders of those wisemen and women, the Jolugan would suggest that the best of each tribe would be chosen to lead and work together. The predictions and wisdom of the river-wardens' seers have made much of the modern Leafan nation possible, but even with this the Jolugani have opted to live a nomadic lifestyle- all of them still live a semi-tribal existence, flowing from place to place across the island and out into the greater world around them; acting as scouts, informants, gypsies, and diplomats. They are one of the only factions which can claim to be on genuinely good terms with the Centauri, having similar religious and cultural ideologies. Life as a serf of the ruling Sesephiel clan is pretty good, presuming one likes to travel. All the other houses have entrusted the Jolugani nomads with keeping watch over Leafos, and as much of Charybdis as is physically possible, and reporting back what they see of the universe around them. This is no easy task, especially not for a group whose membership is counted in mere tens of thousands. As the world around them modernizes, more and more are forced to go out farther and farther to continue their patrols and hunts. More and more fail to return home every year. It is feared that they may be dying out because of this, and several groups- mostly notably those under the jurisdiction of Kinshu, Leviduan, and Kulvaldun are looking for ways to render the Jolugan's services obsolete so that they need not travel so much. Those few who do not travel are usually members of druidic circles- either the Rhineward, Fogstalkers, Eagleflight, Seabanes, or Heartsbreath- have claimed key regions of Leafos's forests and forbidden the other Leafans from bringing urban or suburban development there. The few people who have dared to cross them on this subject have never been found, and no questions are asked. The leader of the Sesephiel is the Rhinegrave Hlarra, taken from the ranks of the Eagleflight druids. She may be the sole reason Leafos has survived so well in the modern era; for the last fourty years she's been setting up an extremely fine tuned spy network that goes across the island and into several of Leafos' neighbors. These 'Twilight Magpies', as the Rhinegrave herself, are obsessive about their work, and nothing is overlooked, to the point where SOP dictates "if nine out of ten agents agrees something is not a threat, it is the tenth's job to disagree and look back over it." Actual penetration of this network has proven almost ludicrously difficult, not just for outsiders but for other Leafans as well. Hlarra actively cultivates an aura of secretiveness and mystery, skulking in the shadows of the local political structures and swooping down when she is least expected to throw in her two enigmatic bits. They say she does this not just because it adds further layers of irritating obfuscation, but because it amuses her. That she delights in being a figure of intrigue and fear, with the common folk unsure of whether she is a truly noble or villainous figure. Lots of stories circulate about who and what she really is- but most of these are undoubtedly lies for how many of them conflict, which may be another effort on her part, sowing misinformation, inaccuracies, and disparaging remarks about herself. Maybe it gives her a thrill, the only thrill she might be allowed to indulge in as someone who is so thoroughly busy. It aggravates the other nobles to no end, but none of them deny that she's good at what she does- it's no easy task keeping orderly tabs on people that never sit still. House of Kulvaldun For a long time people avoided the tribe of Skerraldeen. Not because they were scary or mysterious or suspicious, but because their valley home was rife with mines and trenches and all sorts of shallow subterranean stratums that turned out to be horribly, horribly unsafe. It used to be said that the only safe way to cross Skerraldeen territory was to be born with wings. This was fine for the Skerraldeen, they're Novimfal, and thus have wings, but not so fine for anyone else. So, most of the time, they were left to themselves- which suited them just fine. They had more important things to concern themselves with, like trying to rebuild the culture they were accustomed to from nothing before their memories passed into oral histories that would also eventually fade. Those efforts were not successful, and the Skerraldeen Novimfal ended up becoming the same primitive sorts as everyone else in only a few generations. A hundred years passed of Novimfal digging and trying to build underground, having little real idea of why the ancestors did so, knowing only that they too needed to dig. They gave up shortly after the great cave-in of 1399, when half of the Creekos Valley collapsed under its own weight. Nobody was killed, but it convinced the Skerraldeen to quit digging and follow the other tribes into the new coalition. The Skerraldeen- or rather, the people who used to be known as such, they've long since dropped such tribal monikers- have experienced significant cultural devolution from the standard exhibited by most Novimfal- they're not historians, but they are experienced with the dirt. They've learned a lot about how the ground works on Leafos, how the mists interact with the soil and how to coax crops out of it, and they shared this information with their fellows as soon as they joined the Mistlight Court. Freed from the burdens of trying to live up the forgotten names and memories of their ancestors, the Leafan Novimfal have learned to enjoy the skies more than tunnels; their natural ability to produce psychic lights makes them invaluable for navigation when Leafos passes through particularly thick parts of the Mists, or on any mission which requires aerial travel. The leader of the Kulvaldun, the nobility picked from the Skerraldeen, is Baroness Kreena. Th e Baroness has led an indulgent life, to say the least- business from the outside world, particularly from people who want to travel through the Mists safely with Kulvaldi pilots, gave her family quite a bit of money. The former Baron and Baroness spoiled her quite a bit on treats from the outside world, which has made her grow quite rotund, to the point where she's too heavy to actually fly herself anywhere anymore. It was feared by the other nobles that once Kreena took power she would prove to be a spoiled brat, but she's proven to be more of a Hotei-like figure. Jolly, generous, almost to the point of unsophistication, which to more prim and proper sorts is almost as irritating as if she were spoiled. But she's a shrewd negotiator- has to be, otherwise her brother would have gotten the job, and he really IS spoiled- and has turned using her amiable gluttony to throw people off guard into something of a sport. Nejzhidir Clan The only other tribe to follow the Pharaonic gods, the mostly Valcie-based Kelnhar tribe made their living along the coastlines, where the Graurhine meets the Misty Sea. It seemed like a good idea at first, really- lots of fish, plenty of fresh water, and if they needed fruits and such they could go a few miles inland and harvest from the soggy orchards. They realized a matter of decades after establishing their little coastal cities that this made them particularly vulnerable to assaults from the local aquatic horrors. They swiftly figured out to make friends with the inlanders, particularly the Telkari, trading food and kelp and obsidian taken from under the island to give to the warriors in exchange for assistance in their fights. Their chieftains, which eventually joined to form the Nejzhidir family, were all quite eager to join in the proposal for a unified nation. They knew that all they were doing as an individual group was bare survivalism, they had no real future or prospects for a future in their current form. Too many people dying, not enough resources to shore up defenses on their own. It was a simple choice. Though the Valcie are most comfortable at higher altitudes, the Kelnhar grew to be more at home with the seas, and are often found in Leafan towns employed as naval sorts- dockworkers, sailors, longshoremen, fishers, all that sort of thing. It is a racial oddity but most don't really mind the arrangement, since it means cheaper access to their primary dietary supplements and lots of freedom on the waves; though as the world becomes more open, more and more younger generations have been clamoring for expansion. The things they've seen from Neldoras have really riled them up, hundreds of valcie engineers have begun coming up with plans and designs that could let them add onto Leafos and give them more room, or add hydroponics facilities, maybe even let them steer the island! It's all decades away from what they're currently capable of doing of course, but that doesn't matter- they want to try. And their collective voice is getting louder. The leader of these birdfolk is the Satrap El-Kiedo. El-Kiedo was a born leader, and it was apparent from a very young age when he saved his grandfather's vacation sloop and its crew from being sunk an d slaughtered by sahuagin agents, making clever use of primitive incendiary devices and alchemist's fire to scare the fishmen off and ropes to pull the wheel. Even now, as the Satrap of the Nejzhidir house, he prefers to spend more of his time out on the open waters; he has a serious grudge against the sahuagin for the friends and cousins he's lost to them over the years. When he was younger he was certain that it must be possible to permanently end the threat they posed Leafos, but has since learned that even if the cults below the waves were destroyed, they would simply be replaced by one of a thousand other freak legions that worship the twisted horrors on the Otherside. He's become increasingly bitter about that over the years, the only distractions he gets from thinking about them are the regular meetings he must attend in the Courts and occasional councils held by captains. But even when distracted he comes off as a distant and isolated sort of person, the sort of man even his family and closest friends don't know too well. The world they live in has many wonders, but it is also harsh and cruel, and this is something that El-Kiedo has never been able to accept. House of Tinkust Almost three hundred years ago, Leafos got stuck on something below the waves. Diving crews from across the country went down below the island to discover that their island had become partially embedded into part of what appeared to be a volcano. Reasonably distressed, the whole of the island's industries turned towards trying to dig them off this protrusion, fearing that it might be an active volcano- if it ever erupted it'd kill them all. After two years of hard digging efforts exacerbated by the usual problems, they discovered that they hadn't gotten stuck on a volcano at all. They'd run aground atop some sort of containment facility which had been buried during the Wars, and tectonic activities had dredged part of it up close to the surface. Exploratory crews would discover that what they'd stumbled across was no ordinary military base, but some sort of graveyard. It was full of inert Mechanoids. They were taken up to the surface one by one, all fifteen thousand of them, and studied for decades. They weren't dead, but had for unknown reasons gone completely inert, reasons that remain unknown to this day. After thirty some-odd years of study, enterprising mages would figure out how to reactivate the Mechanoids through a mixture of dumb luck and powerful group spellcasting, reviving them from their long sleep. Unfortunately, whatever traumas had led those Mechanoids to being buried had also erased their memory banks. Finding things for them to do was difficult, because they basically had to be taught everything about everything from scratch. They were tough, didn't need to be fed, and adapted pretty well to their rescuers' culture, religious ideologies, and general society, but that's about all they did. Their only use in terms of national survival and development was their ability to help build things up without consuming many if any resources in the process. They were a group of traumatized averages, never reaching for anything greater than mediocrity. Over the course of two hundred years they were eventually thought of as ambulatory furniture, helpful but with minimal sense of personality. Only in the last handful of decades do any of them seem to have started actually recovering from whatever trauma they suffered and started acting like people, and that's so far proven to be a small percentage. Fifty years ago, the first Leafan Mechanoid began to speak and act like an individual and not just a dull machine. She was a Lifelike, who took on the name Sturmdrache, claiming that she had once been a soldier for the Federation. Though the details were and are still fuzzy, the Mechanoids were forced to take part in a great atrocity, and collectively deserted and found safe haven under the old empire's neutrality. W hen they had been granted asylum, they built for themselves a tomb and one by one slowly shut themselves down. Sturmdrache was the leader then and she is the leader now, the few thousand other Mechanoids that have begun to come out of their stupor all refer to her Oberst, which has become her title as much as her name- Oberst Sturmdrache, leader of the Tinkust. She is a softspoken and slow speaker, the sort who thinks carefully about every word that passes her artificial lips. The Oberst abhors violence of any sort against living things, even against the terrors from the deeps that threaten the whole island, and to date neither she nor any other mechanoid has contributed to fighting them. The undead however, she has no qualms about smiting with impunity and has proven to be frighteningly skilled at tearing through thousands of the Drowned without batting a fake eyelash; but she hates using these destructive capabilities, and whenever possible prefers to stay away from bloodshed. She is known to be a person who struggles with loneliness issues; her Network is enormous, consisting of almost four thousand kemono, more than a few of whom are part of stables of lovers she makes to keep her company at all times. Leafos Back to Main Page